BBC has revealed their list of highest earners, and it shows that several stars have had a serious pay rise since 2018. However, Gary Lineker has still topped the list as the richest BBC presenter, earning a whopping £1.75million from the broadcaster for presenting Match of the Day. Meanwhile, Chris Evans came up in second place, earning an impressive £1.25million, and Graham Norton takes third place with £615k, marking a £10k pay rise from last year.
© Photo: Getty ImagesClaudia is in the top 10 list
Meanwhile, several women have also made the top ten highest paid BBC earner list for the first time ever. The BBC gave Zoe Ball a massive pay rise, putting her in eighth place with £374k from her former annual fee of £150k. Claudia Winkleman matched Zoe's wages with £374k as well, while Vanessa Feltz also made the list at £359k. Discussing the gender pay gap, BBC director general Tony Hall said: "The BBC has turned the corner on gender pay. When we first published the figures for top talent, there was a 75:25 split between men and women. The projection for 2019/20 is now 55:45. This is significant change. The task is not complete, we are not complacent, but we are well on our way."
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© Photo: Getty ImagesGary is the highest paid star
Speaking about Gary's salary, Tony added: "Every time contracts come up we look at them, we negotiate hard with people but Gary does do an excellent job. People and our audiences, when we ask them, want us to employ great people but overall our talent bill is coming down and it's 0.5% of our overall spend... the bill is coming down, that doesn't mean we shouldn't employ great people who entertain us, who inform us, who educate us." Some celebrities on the best paid list also received notable pay cuts, including Huw Edwards, whose salary was decreased by £34k and Steve Wright, who took a £90k pay cut, bringing his yearly salary to £465k.
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